Story Photos

Related Content

That's Rob Murdock, Vice President and General Manager of Vancouver-based Nautilus, describing the Tough Mudder race that he and his team will be competing in this weekend in Fossil, Oregon.

The Tough Mudder is a grueling 10-mile obstacle course designed by British special forces. Check out this video of a Tough Mudder race in Ohio and you'll see what we're talking about:

This reporter stopped by Nautilus Thursday morning for a mini training session to see what the team is in for. Of course, they took it easy on me - although challenging, it was actually pretty mild compared to some of the actual obstacles the Nautilus team will go through during the real thing.

The race is not an easy one, by any stretch, but the team has been training hard since January.

"Like anything, it's something you have to work towards," Murdock said. "That's our fitness mentality anyways. You start small, be safe, progressively get stronger, progressively get fitter, and then you work toward a big goal. And this is a really big goal."

The Tough Mudder isn't just a way to put participants through the paces - it also serves as a way to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project ($5 million to date).

There was a similar, but tamer, event at Portland International Raceway a couple of weeks ago called the Rugged Maniac. KATU.com photographer Kai Hayashi was there - check out his photos.